Saturday 21 September 2013

The Week That Was

I disappeared from the blog this week for personal reasons. For those friends reading this who let me babble on about random things this week while I processed what happened, thank you. 

In happier news, tomorrow is the All-Ireland Football Final (that would be Gaelic Football, by the way) at Croke Park in Dublin. What a treat to see my cousin on a Sunday Game TV spot:

Good on ya, Patrick!

What is the Sunday Game? It's the GAA version of "After Hours" for you hockey fans. As much as it pains me to say this: Up Dublin! Kick some Mayo arse!

As for the things that kept me going in amongst the random babbling? Well, one was that we had a successful launch of a new series at work. Sound oddly vague? Yes, but that's all you get. All you really need to know is that we knocked it out of the park.

Knocked it out. Just like Luther.
The other is that I joined a kickboxing gym... and I love it! I honestly did not expect that. At least, I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.


I got a two week free trial pass to Chakara Kickboxing and Total Fitness from my friend, Katie, who has been trying for a while to get me to come with her. K attends a combination of kickboxing and bootcamp classes four nights a week and was determined that I should attend all of them with her. ALL OF THEM! Sorry, Katie, but you be crazy! There was no way I was going to do all four days and not die.


Well, I did four days. I didn't lay down and die. In fact, I've signed up for more. I think I owe Katie an apology. 
.
.
.
But she's not going to get it.

(I spent this week watching season 3 of Luther, hence the Luther gifs.)

Sunday 8 September 2013

Sunday Snippets: September

Well, it only took 10 years of not being in some sort of schooling for me to finally stop thinking of September as a new year. Now it's just September, killer of summer dreams and bringer of longer nights. Thanks a lot, September.

September is pretty much Omar in month form.

Many years, September is just a continuation of August weather-wise, but this year it is definitely the beginning of Autumn. While the days are still warm, nights are downright cold here at the moment. We also had some crazy freak rain storms over the last two weeks which left me with two very cuddly cats because, dude, thunder!

This year seemed to be the summer of out-of-town visitors which was a good thing.

It was also the summer of macarons which was a good thing for everything except my waistline.

It was the summer of a missed DietBet because it takes forever to set up PayPal. Lesson learned.

And it was the summer of setting up a bedtime schedule due to sleeping issues. For the first time in years, I turned down social evenings specifically because I wouldn't be home in time for bed.

Yup.
But summer is actually my least favourite season - go ahead, mock me all you want for that fact - so I'm not too sad to see it go. Autumn is my second favourite season and the rest of September is shaping up to be an awesome month. The only thing I'm not looking forward to? All the bloody pumpkin love on the blogs I read.

The only thing I like about pumpkins is carving them and roasting the seeds. I don't care for the Pumpkin Spiced Lattes at Starbucks, I actively avoid pumpkin pie as an option for dessert, and I will roast every other type of cucurbita there is but pumpkin. Every recipe posted on a blog between now and American Thanksgiving is going to have pumpkin in it. To be honest, it makes me a little stabby.


Sorry, pumpkin. It's not me, it's you.

It was also, in case it's not already abundantly clear from the gif choices, the summer that I bought and (re)watched all five seasons of The Wire because it is arguably the best show to have even been broadcast. It is the show that ruined all other cop shows for me because it is so good and it is rooted in reality in a way that no other cop drama is. Fair warning: there is strong language, violence and nudity - hey, it's HBO! - but if you want to know why the war on drugs will never be won then this is the show to watch.

Plus, it has Idris Elba in it; do you really need another reason to watch?


Yeah. I didn't think so.